Hopeful Proposals
by Stargazing BasketCase
Summary: He missed her, more than she could ever realise. And now, he doesn’t want to lose her ever again. TenRose. Sequel to ‘Hope Returned’.


Title: **Hopeful Proposals**

Rating: T (It's a bit suggestive, and I'm paranoid. So there!)

Summary: He missed her, more than she could ever realise. And now, he doesn't want to loose her ever again. Ten/Rose. Sequel to 'Hope Returned'.

Disclaimer: Doctor Who is NOT mine, I own NOTHING (unless DVDs, books, a poster, Top Trumps cards, a couple of badges and a plethora of stickers count) and I have made NO MONEY from writing this. Ah, damnit…

This is the third in a 'series' of sorts, an AU post-'Doomsday'. It's preceded by 'Wait For Hope' and 'Hope Returned', and you might want to read those two first. They're not long. And I think I'm going to call this my Hope Series.

And I know that this is sorta sappy, corny, cheesy, whatever other –y words you wanna use. So sue me. I love fluff. –grins– And if ya don't like fluffiness, don't read.

Anyway. R&R is much appreciated, and Enjoy!

Hopeful Proposals 

The warren of corridors inside the TARDIS was quiet, no indignant voices echoing through the ancient ship. Admittedly it was home to only two people, so there wasn't usually that much noise, but today there was complete, dead silence in all the rooms.

All the rooms but one, and even that was only the intimate murmur of lovers' voices.

>>>>>>>>>

Rose lay back against the Doctor, her blonde hair splaying across his shoulder. A smile slid across her lips and she allowed her eyes to drift close. For the first time in months, she felt safe; secure. Whole.

And she was never going to let him go again.

He shifted slightly beneath her weight, and she felt his finger dance along her arm to the slender ring that still resided on her hand. The pads of his fingertips skated along the smooth gemstone, and he made a little noise, somewhere between surprise and confusion.

Rose opened her eyes. "Doctor?"

"Can I have a look?" he asked softly, his fingers flicking away from the jewellery piece.

She slid it off her hand and offered it to him, nestled in the palm of her hand. "Sure." She watched him as his long fingers plucked it from her grasp and spun it in a lazy circle. "I don't think it works anymore though," she said, almost nostalgically. "It was like the TARDIS a bit. It needed energy from that other world to make it work, and now I'm here it's just a ring."

He grinned, looking down at her. "I think I'm rubbing off on you." He pulled her closer, if that was at all physically possible. "I also think you're right."

"Pity though," she murmured. "If we still had it, we could've…" She trailed off, but the Doctor knew what she was thinking about; all the people they could save, all the people they could be with once more.

He kissed her temple softly. "No, we couldn't've," he replied softly.

She smiled sadly "I know." She sniffed. "But it's nice to dream."

"I love you," he murmured softly, suddenly feeling enormously guilty for having taken her away from her family, again, and permanently this time. "More than you know."

She smiled. "I love you too, my Doctor."

He almost glowed inside. Those words never ever got old. _Never say 'never ever', _he reprimanded himself.

_Shut up. _

He ignored the little voices that murmured inside his head, and returned his attention to the ring he still held in his hand. His forehead furrowed. "That's weird."

"What's weird?"

He sniffed, his other arm sliding around her waist. "I've seen this ring before."

"You have?" she asked, mildly surprised. "When?"

"I don't know," he replied. "I just sorta know I have."

She smiled and snuggled back down against his strong frame. "The Time Lord version of déjà vu?"

He smiled. "Yeah. Something like that."

"Probably shouldn't be surprised by your all-encompassing knowledge by now," Rose murmured softly, sleep tucking its blanket over her.

"Probably." He grinned. "Sleepy?"

"I've been up all night. And half of the morning." She peered up at him through one sleep-fogged eye. "Your fault, Doctor."

He hugged her closer, his pale cheeks turning a faint pink with dirty memories. "Fair enough."

>>>>>>>>>

Suddenly Rose pulled himself out of his arms, her forehead crinkled in a troubled expression. She sniffed hard, and grimaced.

He jerked up half-sleepily at the sudden loss of contact. "Rose?" He noticed the expression on her face. "What's wrong?"

She favoured him with a brilliant smile. "Nothing's wrong. I just need a shower," she said simply.

A grin quirked at his lips. "All alone?" he asked teasingly, his fingers wandering up her arm; skin dragging across skin.

She shoved him back against the squishy leather sofa they had been sprawled across, pulling herself to her feet in the rich carpet. "Later," she reprimanded firmly. "I smell; therefore I shower."

"Shove over Descartes," the Doctor quipped, "Rose Tyler is in the house."

She laughed. "You're so full of yourself!"

"Oh yeah," he admitted chirpily, grinning stupidly. "But you love it really." He watched her soft smile, and he almost quivered with emotion.

She ruffled her slender fingers through his brown hair and made to leave, her foot making it halfway off the ground before he caught hold of her wrist in a gentle but firm grip. "Doctor?" she asked softly.

Ignoring the question in her tone he turned her arm over with slow, fluid movements, running his fingertips over the exposed veins in her flesh. Deliberately he lowered his head, keeping his eyes fixed on hers, and pressed an open-mouthed kiss to her skin, his tongue flicking out to swirl across her thumping pulse; the pulse that quickened dramatically as he touched her.

He smiled and released her hand. It fell limply beside her hip.

The Doctor looked up into her eyes, his own twinkling. "Just a promise," he murmured softly, "of things to come."

She flushed.

>>>>>>>>>

He had lied to her; just a little white lie.

He did remember where he had seen the ring before, and he remembered all too clearly. It had been just before Regeneration Number Nine; when he had absorbed the entirety of the Time Vortex in order to save his Rose.

In a split second he had seen thousands upon thousands of different ways his life might play out. He had seen Rose leaving and he'd seen her staying; he'd seen her falling into the Void and he'd seen Pete saving her. He had seen just about everything…

And he'd seen this.

He spun the ring around his fingers once more, a goofy smile spreading widely across his lips. "My Rose Tyler," he murmured to himself, and sprung to his feet before haring off to the control room.

He needed to put the TARDIS on a new heading.

>>>>>>>>>

"Doctor?" Rose padded through the TARDIS corridors, her footsteps echoing softly up and down the passageways. "Doctor, where are you?"

"Control room Rose!" his voice yelled faintly to her.

Rose rolled her eyes at his restless behaviour. "Stay there!" she ordered.

"Your wish is my command!"

Was it just her, or was there something else beside playfulness in his voice? Her wrist warmed with the memory of his caressing kiss as her mind conjured up rather dirty thoughts of what he might be planning.

He _had_ said 'a promise of things to come'.

What did that mean?

She quickened her pace.

Only one way to find out.

>>>>>>>>>

His pin-striped suit was rough against his skin as he moved restlessly around the console, well, rough compared to the silk of her skin. The TARDIS had landed with nary a bump on the planet he had directed her to, but the Doctor was beginning to have second thoughts.

The TARDIS felt his indecision. _Doctor, _she said at last. _Don't be an idiot. _

He was mildly surprised, but more at the words that the presence of another voice inside his head. The TARDIS had spoken to him often when Rose had been trapped in the other universe, offering her not-so-silent support and care. _And hello to you too, _he replied.

He felt her amusement, and irritation at his frustrating stubbornness. _Doctor, how can you dare to doubt her? _

_It's not _her _I doubt, _he told his ship. _It's me I doubt. What if—_

_No! No 'what if's. _

He almost laughed. _Fine. _

He felt the psychic equivalent of condescending eye-rolling. _Just ask her. She loves you Doctor. What have you got to lose? _

_I s'pose. _

_I know. And by the way? She's coming. _

And then the TARDIS was silent inside his mind.

>>>>>>>>>

Rose stepped into the control room, flicking her freshly-washed hair behind one shoulder. "Doctor," she said by way of greeting, a smile on her lips.

He grinned over at her, and held out his hand. She readily slid her hand into his, intertwining their fingers and squeezing tightly. "Where are we?" she asked, her forehead furrowing as she noticed the ancient vessel wasn't moving.

With a silent grin he gestured towards the TARDIS doors.

She narrowed her eyes at him, half-worried at his unusual silence. "Is something wrong?" she asked softly, her hand drifting up to caress the side of his face.

His eyes focused in on her face and he smiled warmly. "Everything's perfect," he murmured softly, leaning gently into the hand on his cheek. "You're perfect," he continued, his head turning to kiss her fingers gently.

Then he pulled back, and jerked his head towards the TARDIS's doors. "So," he started, "are you gonna take a look?"

She grinned. "You're impossible," she told him firmly, before dragging him towards the police box's wooden doors.

>>>>>>>>>

Behind her, his grin faded slightly and he worried his lip with his teeth for a moment, nervous. But he felt the brief psychic prod of the TARDIS, and the grin returned as his confidence shot up._ Just spit it out Time Lord, _he ordered himself. _Ask her. _

He shot back to the here and now as Rose pulled open the door and stepped outside, her fingers going slack around in his as her jaw literally fell open. "My _God,_" she breathed.

He smiled and released her hand, sliding his arms around her waist. His gaze slid up to the night sky, and he smiled.

It was something like an alien version of the Earth aurora; curtains of luminescent threads hanging in the midnight-blue star-speckled skies. Deep red and almost-neon blues chased each other across a palate of bold violet and bright green; clashing colours merging in harmonies that swirled into each other to create a single majestic symphony of colour that blew the senses.

Rose was awestruck. "It's… spectacular," she murmured softly, the colours reflected in her dark gaze as she revelled in what she saw, drinking in the sight as if it were a drug. "Amazing…"

"Yeah," he murmured, his gaze leaving the skies and settling on the woman in his arms. "Definitely."

She turned in the circle of his arms, suddenly curious. "Doctor, why are we here?" she asked softly.

"Do we _have_ to have a reason?" he asked with a smile, his fingers stroking gently against the small of her back in little circles and swirls.

She raised one eyebrow at him, her hands coming up to rest against his chest. "Seeing as it's you, yes."

The Doctor smiled, but there was a hint of worry behind the expression. "Fair enough," he answered. "You got me." He swallowed nervously and dropped his arms from around her, taking a tiny step backwards. "I do have a reason." The light breeze stirred the hem of his overcoat, writhing it around his ankles; a physical embodiment of what his quivering stomach felt like.

"Doctor?"

He shifted anxiously. Cautiously he reached out and gently took hold of her hands between his. Their eyes met, and he suddenly felt a hell of a lot more confident. "You don't have to answer right away," he said softly, "and you don't have to say yes."

The skin of her forehead furrowed into a frown. "Doctor…"

He kissed her gently before she could continue. "Please," he said softly. "Just listen."

She nodded mutely, her eyes wide.

"I thought I lost you," he murmured, his voice almost cracking. "It was nearly a year for me; I know it was less for you." His tongue darted out, swiping moisture across his semi-cracked lips. "If it happened again, I don't know what I'd do."

"It won't," she murmured, promising something she couldn't possibly deliver.

"You don't know that," he answered. "And neither do I." He swallowed, and his gaze locked with hers. "But when you were gone, I had plenty of time to think about… things. About us. About all that we had missed."

"Doctor…"

"Ssh." He released her hands slowly, and dipped his hand into his pocket. "I don't want us to dance around each other any more," he whispered.

She had realised by now what he was going to do; he could tell from the fact that her eyes were wider than they had ever been before. His hand withdrew from his pocket, the Skasas ring held between his index finger and thumb.

"Doctor…" She faltered.

"Rose." He shuffled his feet slightly, and then steeled himself. "Rose Tyler." Slowly he dropped down, keeping his gaze connected to hers, an invisible thread linking them together. His left knee made contact with the soft earth and he swallowed. _This is it. _

"I know it hasn't been long since you got back," he started, his eyes earnest. "but I'm asking you now. Rose Marion Tyler. Will you marry me?"

>>>>>>>>>

Silence.

She was silent; dumbstruck.

_Will you marry me? _

Four words she'd never thought she'd hear from him; four words that had just spilled from his lips.

And really, there was no thought required.

She smiled and raised her hand, slipping the ring into place on her finger. She watched as the lights of the aurora above play across his face, and she felt her insides twist at the half-hopeful expression on his features. Her other hand came up and her fingertips danced down his cheek.

"Rose?" he asked tentatively.

The smile became a grin. "Yes," she said softly. "Of course."

In the blink of an eye he was grinning as well, and on his feet an instant later. He swept her up in a hug, pressing his lips to hers in a rushed, joyful kiss.

He drew back and studied her face. He couldn't help himself smiling. "My Rose," he said, love blazing clear from his eyes.

She grabbed his head between her hands and kissed him again, smiling against his lips. "My Doctor," she whispered.

He just hugged her tighter under the lights in the sky.

end


End file.
